Mary Kenny“in so many… countries desperate for better fertility… the economic structure of society just doesn’t support mothers, fathers and families”, writes Mary Kenny
Fr Vincent Twomey, a very estimable theologian, has suggested that contraception has had a disastrous impact on fertility patterns throughout the western world.
Falling fertility certainly is a major concern, now, to economists. Japan now sells more incontinence pads for older people than nappies for babies and Italy is in such dire straits over its catastrophically low birth rates – 1.39 babies per woman – that the Italian health minister tried to usher in a “fertility national day” to try and urge Italians to welcome more bambini.
The Economist magazine – traditionally a supporter of curbing birth rates – recently highlighted the fact that in 19 countries polled, women wanted to have more children than they already had.
The problem, in so many of these countries desperate for better fertility, is that the economic structure of society just doesn’t support mothers, fathers and families.
The Italian government’s call for “more babies” met with an angry reaction from younger women who said that there just wasn’t enough child-care support. The nurseries and crèches were either very expensive or unavailable. Grandparents do their best to help out, but modern life sometimes means that the grandparents were geographically too far away for this to be practical.
Contraception alone is not the reason for the fall in fertility, as Todd G. Buchholz points out in his recent book, The Price of Prosperity – Why Rich Nations Fail. Buchholz writes that rich nations fail when their fertility declines, but we need to address related issues around this: we need to build better community institutions (these support the family), and honour the durable traditions which are a counterpoint to the globalised, atomised, Internet-led influences of modernity.
Debate
And we also need, surely, to do everything we can to support mothers and fathers. The debate about whether mothers ‘should’ work is now somewhat outworn: where mothers need to take financial responsibility their children, they, too should be supported by every social institution, including, of course, the churches.
To have pro-natalistic policies, we need an organic, joined-up pro-natalist approach to the whole of community life.
The right to bear arms
Seeing some of the dreadful outcomes of America’s ludicrously permissive gun laws – including heart-breaking massacres of schoolchildren by unhinged individuals – I imagine that most of us would not favour the American Constitution’s pledge to “the right to bear arms” for every citizen.
And yet, it has emerged that 83% of Irish farmers are indeed in favour of the right to keep a personal firearm as a defence weapon.
Many, if not most, farmers will have guns (under licence) for agricultural purposes – to shoot vermin, or to hunt rabbits – but as I understand it, the law in Ireland does not allow the citizen to keep a gun for reasons of personal defence.
So, presumably, most farmers who feel they need a gun in the house – in justifiable fear of crime – will probably cite agricultural management reasons for the firearm.
What would a Catholic moral theologian say? On balance, I believe moral theology allows self-defence – although not prophylactic action: you are permitted to defend yourself, if attacked. You are not permitted to take action beforehand, or in anticipation. Defence and deterrence are separated.
It’s a fine line, perhaps, but a reasonable one. A person must be entitled to defend himself, herself or a family. But they are not entitled to anticipate a crime.
‘You can’t take it with you’
I went to Mass last Sunday at St Mary’s Parish Church in Navan – a stunningly beautiful church in the centre of town.
The interior is painted a rose-pink, and adorned with attractive paintings and wall frescoes. The four Evangelists are depicted in murals on the high wall behind the altar, and interestingly, (and probably accurately), Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are depicted as looking very much like Syrian people would look today – Middle Eastern and Semitic.
The church was well-attended, there was clearly a lot of community activity going on and the priest was an African, with a musical singing voice. He also told an engaging story linked to the Gospel passage.
A very mean man instructed his wife, before he died, that he wanted all his wealth and assets to be buried with him. She was to sell everything and ensure that his money would go with him to the grave. She agreed to do his bidding, and at the funeral, everyone was curious as to how she would carry out this dying wish. And thus she had done so: she had sold up all his assets and as the widow, the revenue reverted to her account. She then wrote a cheque to her late husband, and buried the cheque with him in the grave!
So (a) you can’t take it with you and (b) we should make sure our finances should do good when we have them.